Hard Landing
by Jackie W
Summary: They didn't believe her, now Sam is paying the price


Title: "Hard Landing"  
  
Author: Jackie W.   
  
Email: jackiesfic@aol.com  
  
Rating: PG  
  
Classification: S/J UST/ANGST  
  
Season: Season 5, After ASCENSION  
  
Spoilers: Ascension, Divide and Conquer, plus some foreshadowing of 48 Hours   
  
Summary: They didn't believe her, now Sam is paying the price.   
  
Author's Notes: I've always wondered if Sam ever got in any trouble for the whole Orlin mess. If the NID wanted to cripple the SGC, that certainly would have been a good opportunity to try to take her down, and we know that Simmons was looking for dirt at that point. And then in the very next episode (The Fifth Man) Sam is desperate to get back to rescue O'Neill. How come she wasn't still mad at him? So here's what you get when you give your Muse a simple idea and let her run with it without parental supervision.  
  
  
  
The few tears that Sam allowed herself to shed made silent tracks down her cheeks in the privacy of the shower. Tears not for the carefully built career that was now surely over, but for the relationships that she knew had also not survived this crisis. The three men whom she'd grown to love, and considered her family, the men who should have been looking out for her, had left her alone to flounder through a situation where there was no clear-cut right and wrong. The General that she had always respected had allowed her to be put into the position where she would now take the fall for something that had been beyond her control. Even Janet, her best friend, had questioned her sanity.   
  
After her shower, she put all of those thoughts aside. She needed to be strong and see if she could salvage at least her freedom if not her career. She knew that Colonel Simmons was pushing to have her court marshaled, and she'd be damned if she was going to go to jail for trying to save SG16. She waited to enter the infirmary until she was sure Janet was occupied, then slipped in to have her post-mission exam. Once done, she gratefully escaped without running into any of her team, and secluded herself in her quarters with her laptop long enough to type up a letter of resignation. Then she went straight to Hammond's office, hoping that her leaving would appease the powers that be, and they wouldn't feel the need to press charges. She wasn't fast enough.  
  
General Hammond looked at the piece of paper in his hands, and then at the Major standing in front of him, ramrod straight, hands clasped behind her back. Her eyes were trained on a spot on the wall behind him, and he found that he was glad he didn't have to look her in those eyes. He was sure he would see nothing but hurt and betrayal.   
  
"I'm sorry. I can't accept this, Major," he said with a sigh. "Formal charges have already been filed and you will need to face them. Frankly, the haste with which they were put together may work to your advantage, because I personally don't think they are worth the paper they are written on. But that is not my decision to make. There will be a hearing in a day or two, once legal council and a judge advocate with proper security clearance can be rounded up," he explained.  
  
Sam refused to break down. She concentrated on the spot she had picked out on the wall, and prepared to answer the General calmly. Before she could reply, Colonel Simmons knocked on Hammond's door interrupting them. Two SF's accompanied him.  
  
"General, these men are here to escort the Major to a holding cell," he gloated.  
  
Sam's calm slipped just enough for Hammond to see her eyes widen in disbelief before her mask slipped back into place.   
  
"That won't be necessary, Colonel. Major Carter is not a threat to this base. Her quarters will be sufficient," Hammond countered.  
  
"General, I must object," Simmons began, only to have Hammond cut him off.  
  
"Are you questioning my authority to run this base, Colonel?" he bellowed.  
  
"No of course not," Simmons replied, his eyes narrowing to angry slits. "I need to insist that the Major not have any computer access, however, even to her laptop," he persisted.  
  
"Agreed," Hammond said with a resigned sigh. He picked up the phone. "Please have Colonel O'Neill come to my office," he ordered to his aide then he turned to Simmons again. "Colonel, you can have the guards report to the corridor outside of the Major's quarters. I have some loose ends to tie up with SG1, and then Colonel O'Neill will escort Major Carter to pick up any personal items that she requires before being confined. You are dismissed," the General stated in a tone that brooked no arguments.  
  
Five minutes later the rather vocal argument that Colonel Jack O'Neill was putting forth in General Hammond's office as he learned of the charges filed against his 2IC could be heard several levels up. As he ranted on, the Major sat quietly, hands in her lap, eyes now firmly on the toes of her boots. All she could think was that it would have been nice if he had argued as forcefully for her when all of this mess had started instead of taking the easy way out and assuming she was having a breakdown. He could bluster all he wanted now, but it was too little too late. When Jack finally quieted down, the General reiterated that they would be doing everything in their power to get the charges against the Major dropped. Then he ordered Jack to escort her to collect her things.   
  
"No work allowed Major, do you understand?" Hammond insisted.  
  
Sam quietly uttered the only two words she had spoken to her superiors all day, or would for another 36 hours. "Yes, Sir."  
  
She maintained the rigid, silent, calm for the next twenty minutes as she stopped at her locker to collect spare clothes and her purse and keys, and then at her lab to pick up several journals that she had been wanting to read. By the time they reached her quarters her silence was seriously freaking out O'Neill, who had twice tried to voice a stuttering apology only to be stopped by a glare from Sam that told him she didn't want to hear it. As they entered the room, Jack set down the items he had been carrying onto the bed with a sigh.  
  
"I'm going to fill in Teal'c and Daniel, then we will be back and we'll sort out getting you some dinner," he commented to her back as she refused to turn to face him.  
  
As he left he heard a resounding click as the door was locked, and he knew that he at least would not be permitted back in that evening. Sure enough, five minutes after he left, Sam peeked out the door, informed the SF's that she was exhausted and was going to get some sleep. She firmly told them that she did not want to be disturbed until morning unless aliens were overrunning the base. Then she re-locked the door, grabbed a pillow to muffle her sobs, and finally let herself break down.  
  
When her teammates came to offer moral support they were turned away by the guards. Later, when Dr. Fraiser stopped by she was also told that the Major had requested that she not be disturbed, but Janet wasn't about to take no for an answer. However by that time, Sam had truly exhausted herself crying, and she had fallen asleep, so when her friend quietly peeked in she was satisfied that Sam was ok.   
  
By the next morning the Major had pulled herself together. Up early, she had the SF's get a female guard to escort her to SG1's locker room so she could shower and change, and was back in her room before any of her teammates showed up. Having skipped dinner the night before she was able to eat a good portion of the breakfast that was sent up, despite how nervous she was about the upcoming day.  
  
Jack, Teal'c and Daniel showed up at 08:00 to check on her, but they were once again turned away, as she was already meeting with her legal council. They headed down to the commissary with a sense of unease. They had just loaded their trays and sat down when Janet entered, and after grabbing some cereal and yogurt she joined them.  
  
"How's Sam doing, Doc?" Jack asked.  
  
"I haven't seen her since this all happened. I assumed you three would have been with her," Janet told them.  
  
"I saw her yesterday before she was confined to quarters, but none of us have seen her since then," Jack admitted.  
  
Janet swore softly. "She's trying to cope with this on her own," she said shaking her head.  
  
"She feels she must," Teal'c stated wisely, then elaborated as the other three looked at him questioningly. "Our lack of support is what led her to this misfortune, is it not? Why would she turn to us for support now when we have already failed her so badly?"  
  
Silence met that painful truth, broken finally by Dr. Fraiser. "Well, we'd better figure out a way to get her to trust us again, because if we don't we are going to lose her," she declared.  
  
"The charges against her are bogus. She'll beat them easily," Jack assured them.  
  
"That's not what I meant, Colonel. I agree. General Hammond is already making headway on getting the charges dropped. But once that happens, then what? Do you think that Sam is just going to waltz through the gate with a team she no longer trusts to watch her back?" Janet challenged.  
  
"Do you think she'll request a transfer off of SG1?" Daniel asked, although he feared that he already knew the answer.   
  
"I think she'll request a transfer away from the SGC entirely," Janet predicted.   
  
Her statement hit Jack square in the gut, and a deep sense of panic set in. He was loosing her, and it was all his fault. He'd been so busy trying to keep her at arm's length he'd let himself become numb where she was concerned. As a result he hadn't been there when she'd reached out for help. He remembered that conversation in the corridor when she had been so carefully feeling him out to see if he believed her. He had bluntly told her that they thought she was nuts, and had escaped as quickly as he could. This was the treatment she got from the man that supposedly cared for her? She must hate him, and he deserved it.   
  
While he was internally berating himself, Daniel was trying to find a solution. "We need to talk to her, let her know how sorry we are, and that we are here for her now. She needs to know that we don't believe a word of the charges and that we support what she did, because she thought it was the right thing to do," he declared. "Maybe we can take her lunch when she's done talking to her lawyer."   
  
"I recommend that we don't gang up on her," Janet suggested. "Let me talk to her at lunch and then I'll tell her you all want to see her and apologize."  
  
Five minutes later, still feeling a bit off balance, Jack was paged to the control room, and he reluctantly left the other three to continue the discussion. Meanwhile, he was conferring with Hammond and some of the techs as they tried to correct a dialing error. SG2 was sitting on the ramp waiting to head out on their scheduled mission, however the last chevron refused to lock. Eventually Colonel Simmons joined them, having been looking for General Hammond. He arrived just as Major Griff reached the boundaries of his patience.   
  
"For Pete's sake, just go get Sam. She'll have it fixed in five minutes flat, and then we can get on with this!" he exclaimed.  
  
Colonel Simmons immediately protested. "General, you can't let the Major anywhere near the gate. As a matter of fact, how do we know that she isn't responsible for this glitch?!"  
  
"Major Carter would never stoop to spiteful sabotage, Colonel. That's more like something the NID would do. And since Major Carter is our gate expert, just how long do you propose that I let the gate be shut down before I request her assistance?" General Hammond inquired, barely holding in his contempt.  
  
"We have another expert at Area 51 who has been working on gate simulations for a year, General. Let him fix the problem," Colonel Simmons recommended.  
  
"You have 24 hours, Colonel. Then I go begging to Major Carter and pray that she still holds duty and honor in as high esteem as she used to," Hammond reluctantly agreed. "SG2, stand down," he ordered to the group in the gate room.  
  
By the end of the day, Hammond hoped he never had to live through another one like it again. Unfortunately, the next day wasn't looking very promising either. At least most of the charges against Major Carter had been dropped. However she would still have to face a hearing on the two remaining charges that she had gone AWOL and had interfered with the SG16's mission on Velona. To make matters worse, Simmons' so called expert had turned out to be a royal pain in the ass. Not only were the staff working with him threatening to mutiny, but the gate was still not working.   
  
  
  
Part 2  
  
  
  
Sam's day had gone surprisingly well. She hit it off immediately with the young female Captain who was assigned as her council. Captain Elizabeth Lawford was smart, enthusiastic, and almost as enraged over the ridiculous charges that had been filed against Sam as the Major was. She had Sam recount what had happened, and then talked to her teammates, Hammond, and SG16. Then with a focus and determination that made Sam Carter look like a slacker she attacked the charges one by one, starting with the most blatantly false charge of 'Failure to report pertinent information to her commanding officer'. They had actually laughed at that one.   
  
"Would that be the pertinent information regarding the alien that everybody refused to believe existed?" Liz asked shaking her head in disbelief.   
  
Then they had tackled the charge of 'Unauthorized use of Government Property'. The idea behind that one was that Sam had gone through the gate in her basement without permission. However, since the gate did not belong to the USAF, but rather to Sam (and she had the outrageous credit card bill to prove it), that charge had also been tossed out, along with three other equally ridiculous offenses. By the end of the day only two charges remained. The first being that in leaving Earth without permission Sam had technically been AWOL, and the second stemming from her interference in SG16's mission. Captain Lawford was pretty sure if they could clear up the last charge, the first one would be dropped, as Sam had been conducting USAF business, and had reported in to a superior officer.   
  
At lunchtime Janet brought in her tray and stayed to talk while Captain Lawford was off working. By the end of the hour they spent together the two friends were back on solid ground. Janet had apologized several times for the part she had played in the whole fiasco, and Sam finally assured her that she had never really blamed Janet. The Doctor had just done her job in reporting her medical findings and opinions. And while her opinions may have erred on the side of concern, her medical findings did not show that there was anything wrong with Sam. Despite that, Hammond and O'Neill had decided she was having a breakdown, and it was the two of them that Sam blamed along with her other teammates who had gone along with the decision without protest.   
  
"Sam, they feel awful about this. Daniel has already declared that if the Air Force finds you guilty of anything he will be leaving the program. And Teal'c, well you know he doesn't say much but he has been meditating to 'atone' all morning. As for the Colonel, I really think this has thrown him Sam. When I saw him at breakfast he looked truly lost," Janet recounted.  
  
Sam sighed. She was a little more rational in her thoughts on her teammates and their actions today than she had been yesterday. But she was still hurt and more than a little unsure of the friendships that she would have sworn were solid as a rock a week ago. Finally she looked at Janet and shrugged.  
  
"I don't know what to tell you, Jan. I'm probably the least upset with Teal'c. If he wants to come to atone in person that's fine. Daniel, well, I might need a bit more time. He should know what it feels like for your best friends to think you're nuts. He's been there before. Tell him not to do anything rash, and to give me today to sort myself out. I'll talk to him tomorrow," Sam consented.  
  
"And the Colonel?" Janet asked.  
  
"Tell him to go to hell," Sam replied, her eyes flashing in anger.   
  
Janet's eyes widened in shock. she couldn't remember ever seeing Sam so furious before. Sure the Colonel had pissed her off many times in the past four and a half years, but she always forgave him pretty quickly. Even after the Edora mess once she had gotten some sleep and the Colonel had thanked her for getting him home she had shrugged off the whole Laira thing. At least she had appeared to. Janet had always wondered if deep down Sam had ever really gotten over that. But this outward show of anger at her CO was not Sam's mode of dealing with things. The Doctor wondered if it was a good thing that her friend was finally giving her feelings free reign, or if it spelled disaster for SG1.   
  
She reported in to the rest of SG1 an hour later. "Well, she's still pretty upset, but she is willing to talk," she told them. "Just to Teal'c for now," she added as all of three men jumped to there feet. "Daniel, she said she'll see you tomorrow."  
  
None of them failed to notice the look of resignation on Jack's face when he realized that he had not been invited to talk at all. He explained about the gate crisis, and promised to meet up with them tomorrow at the hearing, then left them.   
  
Once he was gone, Daniel dared to finally ask, "What did she say about Jack?"  
  
"You don't want to know," Janet said shaking her head. "I don't know if she can forgive him this time."  
  
Teal'c wasted no time in going to see Sam. And she couldn't help but accept his apology, mostly because he made no excuses for his behavior. He bluntly told her he had made a mistake in judgement, and politely asked her forgiveness. The fact that he came bearing flowers he had swiped from a centerpiece in the commissary, and a huge piece of chocolate cake didn't hurt any. Sam had to smile. Why was it always the alien guys that knew how to treat a woman right, she wondered?  
  
The next morning Daniel brought her breakfast, and a whole new headache. First he tried to make her see the situation from their point of view, hoping she would begin to forgive Jack if she could see he had just been doing his job.  
  
"Daniel, there was an alien running around on Earth. It's not the first time, and it shouldn't have been so hard to believe. If he'd been doing his job he wouldn't have let up until Orlin was found and contained," she pointed out.   
  
"Yes, but Sam, you have to realize how worried we were about you. Oh, I know you can take care of yourself, but you don't. You don't eat or sleep or go out to blow off steam," Daniel protested.  
  
"Neither do you Daniel. Are *you* on the brink of a break-down?" Sam pointed out.  
  
"Touché, Daniel replied. "No I'm not. And it was totally wrong of me to think for a second that you might be. I'm sorry, Sam," he apologized.  
  
They talked a bit more until Captain Lawford showed up, and then Daniel changed the subject.   
  
"General Hammond asked me to bring you up to date on a problem we're having, Sam," he explained, and Sam's head seriously started to pound as she realized what he was asking.  
  
Hammond paced his office as he waited for Major Carter to arrive. The gate had now been down for over twenty-four hours, and Dr. Jackson had just called to say that the Major and her council were on their way after having been apprised of the situation. To say that Captain Lawford was not happy with the request was an understatement.   
  
"Absolutely not," the lawyer protested once Hammond had officially asked the Major to help. "My client would only open herself up to more charges if anything went wrong."  
  
Sam had been sitting quietly during the exchange. Finally as the two continued to argue, she interrupted.  
  
"How many teams are off-world?" she inquired.  
  
"Five, and the Alpha site is due it's supply shipment," Hammond told her.  
  
"We will need to back-out any changes that have been made to the dialing program first. There's a backup disk in my lab. You can have the techs restore from that while I review that logs from just before the problem occurred," Sam stated, still not meeting Hammond's eyes.  
  
"Major, I'm totally against this. It can't help you and could make matters worse," Captain Lawford counseled, placing a hand on Sam's shoulder in sympathy. Even as she advised against it she knew that the Major would not be able to say no to the request.   
  
"I couldn't live with myself if anything happened to any of those teams because I refused to help, Liz," Sam stated simply.   
  
An hour later, Sam summoned Hammond to the control room. "Sir it seems this all started after we dialed P9R-298 and sent a Malp through. Although we were able to establish a wormhole the MALP does not appear to have made it to it's destination before the wormhole shut down," Sam began to explain.  
  
"Yes, that's been the conclusion everyone else has come to. They think that something caused the wormhole to shut down prematurely. But no one seems to be able to figure out how that is causing the current problem," Hammond informed her.  
  
"Sir, the gate stores the pattern of whatever enters until the object successfully is re-constructed at the destination. If the Malp never made it, it is probably stuck in the buffers," Sam elaborated.  
  
"But we cleared the buffers. That was one of the first things we tried," Hammond interrupted.  
  
"The buffers on our gate, yes. But the buffers on the other end still think the wormhole is in progress. Did anyone try to redial P9R-298?" Sam asked.  
  
Hammond looked over at Sgt. Davis who had been working on the problem since the beginning. He shook his head to indicate no.  
  
"Well, I think we need to redial, and then transmit the command to clear the buffers through to the other gate. Then the connection should be able to be severed cleanly. Of course, the Malp will be lost," Sam concluded.  
  
Beside her, Captain Lawford who had been documenting everything Sam did to protect her from any false charges held up her hand.  
  
"We'll need your consent in writing to clear the buffer so the Major can't be accused of destroying Air Force property, Sir," she stipulated. At Hammond's outraged look, she patiently continued. "No disrespect intended, Sir, but it's obvious that someone is trying to get rid of the Major. We need to do everything by the book to protect her until this whole matter is resolved," she explained.   
  
Hammond nodded and left to compose something appropriate. Five minutes later he was back, and handed the signed document to Captain Lawford, who then nodded to Major Carter.  
  
"Dial up P9R-298, Sergeant," Sam instructed Davis.   
  
They all held their breath as the chevrons locked into place. There was a simultaneous sigh of relief from the SGC staff, and a gasp of surprise from the Captain as the wormhole formed.   
  
"Sending through the buffer command, Sir," Sam reports as she typed into her keyboard and hit enter. "I'm getting a successful return code, Sir. We should be able to shut down now."  
  
Hammond gave the command, and Davis shut down the wormhole. The group sat in silence for a moment.   
  
"I recommend that we attempt to dial up the alpha site, Sir," Sam said breaking the quiet. "Some of the teams might have detoured there, and we can get a status."  
  
Hammond nodded his agreement to Davis who once again dialed. This time cheers went up as the last chevron locked into place and the kwoosh burst in to the gate room.  
  
"Well done Major," the General praised, placing a hand on her shoulder.   
  
After a moment, Sam forced herself to meet his eyes which were full of pride and approval. She straightened her shoulders and gave him a nod, then left the room with Captain Lawford in her wake. Sam felt a huge weight lift off her shoulders at that point. The General's trust in her had done a lot to dispel the lingering bad feelings caused by him not believing her about Orlin. And she knew that her agreeing to help had given him proof that she could still function as a valuable member of the SGC if things worked out this afternoon. When they reached the elevators, Sam finally let reaction to the past few hours events set in, and she leaned against the wall of the elevator car and closed her eyes.  
  
"You weren't sure that was going to work!" Liz exclaimed in surprise.  
  
"No. I've been studying that darn thing for almost seven years and I'm still only working on educated guesses," Sam admitted, not moving from her spot against the wall. "But I was pretty sure we wouldn't be making it any worse, so it was worth a try."  
  
"But you seemed so confident," Captain Lawson said, shaking her head in dismay.  
  
"If I don't seem confident no one would ever listen to me. Most of my ideas are pretty far out there. As long as I don't look unsure, everyone else feels better about trying things they never would have considered otherwise," Sam explained opening her eyes to look at the young lawyer. "I'll bet you use the same game face in court. It's just that in my job I'm making a case for physics that no one understands or has tried before," Sam shrugged.  
  
"That's a lot of stress," Liz nodded in understanding.  
  
"It's also very exciting," Sam grinned.  
  
"You love it!" Liz chuckled.  
  
"Every minute of it," Sam confided. "That's why I was so upset that they thought I was having a breakdown. I just don't feel stressed or like I need to rest," Sam frowned. "Well I didn't until now," she added.  
  
"The final charges against you should be dropped during the hearing this afternoon. What are you going to do then?" the Captain asked.  
  
"I have no idea," Sam admitted.   
  
  
  
Part 3  
  
  
  
In the end it was over quickly. Sam had been extremely nervous when the judge advocate and prosecutor had arrived, accompanied by Colonel Simmons. Then the door had opened again, and a second group had   
  
entered the conference room. Hammond, Fraiser, Reynolds and O'Neill, all in their dress blues, along with Daniel and Teal'c in suits had all sat down behind Sam lending silent support. She had thrown the   
  
group a grateful smile before getting up to give her testimony.   
  
Captain Lawford simply had Sam recount the events leading up to her jumping through the homemade gate in her basement including what Orlin had told her about the Others. The prosecutor tried to get her to admit that she had wanted the weapon destroyed, but she had stayed calm and truthfully stated that she had been concerned over Orlin's safety and that of SG16, and so had followed the alien to try to defuse the situation. Afterwards, Colonel Reynolds took the stand and basically corroborated Sam's account of what happened on Velona as Orlin tried to stop the test. When asked by the prosecutor if he though SG16 had been in any danger, he blew the prosecution's case out of the water by stating that if Orlin had not interfered, SG16 probably would have been killed by the Others as they destroyed the weapon.  
  
The judge not only dismissed the last of the charges, but berated the prosecution for wasting everyone's time on what basically amounted to a witch hunt. He ordered that all charges be removed from Sam's   
  
record, so they couldn't ever be used against her again in the future. Daniel, Teal'c and Janet all hugged Sam to congratulate her, while Hammond, Reynolds and O'Neill left quietly. Simmons looked like   
  
he wanted to say something to Carter on his way out, but the prosecutor stepped in and led him out. Then it was just Sam and Liz left in the room. Sam began thanking the Captain for all of her hard work.  
  
"It's my job, Sam. And I can honestly say that I really enjoyed it this time. If you ever need anything, just give me a call," she said. Then she took out an envelope and handed it to her client. "I was instructed to give you this once you were acquitted," she said, and then she left.   
  
Sam sat and slowly opened the envelope. Inside were two pieces of paper. Her eyes went wide with shock as she read the first page, which contained a handwritten note.  
  
Sam,  
  
I think that this morning proves just how much you are needed here at the SGC. I know that Daniel and Teal'c have already taken steps to apologize and hopefully to regain your trust. I also know that I can't possibly excuse my behavior in this matter, and I can fully understand if you feel you can no longer serve under my command. I will gladly step aside if that is what it takes for you to feel comfortable staying at the SGC and on SG1 where you belong. Attached is my request for retirement. Just say the word and I will   
  
give it to Hammond. And don't feel bad if that is what you need. My only regret will be that I failed you as a CO and as a friend. Keeping you at arm's length was the easy way out Sam, but it was the only way I could keep it in that damn room.   
  
Jack  
  
The second page was indeed a copy of his formal request for retirement. Sam let both pages flutter to the table, and sat silently for several minutes. Finally she rose, knowing that if she was ever going to think this through clearly she needed to get out of the mountain, and away for all distractions, so she made her way to   
  
General Hammond's office, and knocked, praying that he was alone.   
  
"Sir, may I have a moment of your time," she asked when Hammond had beckoned her in.   
  
"Certainly, Major. First let me say how relieved we all are that everything has been resolved in you favor. I'm very sorry that you had to face these trumped up charges in the first place," the General apologized.  
  
"Thank you, Sir. I would like to request some downtime, Sir. I think I need a few days to find my feet," Sam requested.  
  
"Of course, Major. Will four days be enough time?" Hammond asked.  
  
"Yes, Sir. Thank you, Sir. I'll be back on Monday then," Sam confirmed as she prepared to leave.   
  
"And, Major?" Hammond asked causing Sam to pause in the doorway. "Keep in mind how much you are needed here," he emphasized. "If there is anything we can do just let me know."   
  
"Don't let any of my teammates do anything rash while I am gone," Sam cryptically requested, and then made her escape.   
  
She made it out of the mountain without running into anyone who would want to stop and chat, and once she was at home she concentrated on deciding where she wanted to go. She let the machine pick up all of   
  
her calls, and after checking that the weather was going to be warm enough for what she had in mind, she spent the evening packing. She was up and out early the next morning, without talking to anyone.  
  
When Jacob Carter came through the gate late on Thursday, responding to Hammond's summons, he tried to phone his daughter at home and on her cell phone, but she was in an area with no service by that time.   
  
So it fell to General Hammond to explain the events of the last several weeks and to take the brunt of Jacob's anger, although Selmac managed to temper it a bit. Eventually Jacob changed into a set of   
  
clothes that he kept on base, and left to wait for Sam at her house, but not before he stopped and gave his daughter's teammates a piece of his mind. He left them with the warning that if they didn't do a better job taking care of his little girl he would take her back with him to work for the Tok'Ra.   
  
He arrived at Sam's house, and used his key to let himself in when he got no answer to his knock. He immediately spotted the evidence of her packing, and with a sigh set out to try to track her down. After   
  
calling her brother Mark, and her Aunt Gladys, he tried a couple of her old friends from the academy that he knew she stayed in touch with. When none of them had heard from her, he settled in to wait,   
  
hoping it wouldn't be too long before she got the message he had left on her cell.   
  
As it was, Sam wasn't very far away. When she had been trying to decide where to go the previous day, she had wandered onto her back deck with a beer to enjoy the late afternoon sun. The answer had been   
  
right in front of her. Well, actually above her. It hadn't taken her long to pull out the gear she would need to hike Pike's Peak. She'd decided on Barr Trail, and while Jacob was calling around she was halfway to Barr Camp where she would stay the night. She would have plenty of time to make it to the summit the next day, do a little soul searching, and then hike back down to the camp to stay a second night.   
  
On Friday her little bit of soul searching turned into five hours of taking a long hard look at her life. She re-read the Colonel's note until she knew every word by heart, and she thought long and hard about what he had very carefully not admitted in those words. Eventually she had forced herself to admit a few hard truths. The first was that she had also been guilty of keeping the Colonel at arm's length. The second was that keeping it in the room wasn't working very well. They couldn't function as teammates if they were   
  
afraid to even be friendly with each other. The third thing she finally concluded was that she wanted to stay on SG1, and she couldn't imagine doing that without Jack O'Neill to lead them. After getting a late lunch at the Summit House, she spent the next couple of hours trying to think of a way for she and the Colonel to find a happy balance between ignoring their feelings and risking letting them get out of control. She was halfway back to camp when she finally came up with something she thought she could live with. The   
  
rest of her journey down was made with a much lighter heart.   
  
She didn't get her messages until she was back loading up her car at the trailhead late Saturday morning. She tried calling home, but her dad was out, so she left a message that she would be there in an hour. Then she made a few other calls. The first was to the Colonel. She told him they needed to talk, and she would be over at 15:00. He had simply agreed, and she knew that he must be expecting her to either request a transfer, or ask that he go through with his retirement. He was in for a bit of a surprise. Then she called   
  
Teal'c, Daniel and Janet, and told them to meet her at O'Neill's at 17:00, and to bring pizza and beer. With that all taken care of she pointed her car towards home and a long hot shower. Jacob was waiting for her, but his need to talk was quickly overpowered (literally) by her need to clean up, so he made them some lunch while Sam pampered herself for a bit. When she joined him in the kitchen she once again   
  
postponed any discussion with one loud rumble from her stomach. All of that fresh air had worked up an appetite.   
  
After lunch, Jacob finally got his say. Sam let him rant and rave for quite a while before she finally asked to speak to Selmac.   
  
"Tell him that I need to be someplace in two hours, and I'd really appreciate it if he'd be quiet long enough to listen to my side of the story," she begged with a cheeky grin.  
  
"I'm still right here, you know," her father answered.  
  
But he let her explain from the beginning, and while he still wasn't happy, he agreed to leave it up to her to sort out her own life. She wondered if it was age and everything he had been though over the past several years that had mellowed him, or if Selmac actually had affected the change. Whichever it was, she was grateful that he no longer always felt that he had to run her life.  
  
She arrived at the Colonel's at the appointed time, but dallied on his front porch trying to work up the nerve to ring the bell. She was grateful that he looked nervous as well several minutes later as he ushered her inside. Once seated, she pulled two sheets of paper from her purse, and unfolded them.  
  
"I think this belongs to you," she said, handing him the typed page. The hand-written note was carefully folded and put back in the bag.   
  
"I meant what I said," Jack replied, cautiously taking the paper from her. "I'll do whatever it takes, Carter. I won't be responsible for you giving up the SGC or SG1."  
  
"I'm not going anywhere," she told him.  
  
"That's good to hear, but are we going to be ok? Can you forgive me for being a complete ass?" Jack asked watching her carefully.   
  
She gave him a small smile. "It's not the first time you've been a complete ass, and I'm sure it won't be the last time. And yes, I forgive you. I understand why you acted the way you did," she admitted. Then she took a deep breath and continued. "I made a mistake a year ago suggesting that we leave it in that room," she said, surprising and confusing him.  
  
"What do you mean? You know we can't act on those feelings," he protested.   
  
"I know. But have those feelings gone away by ignoring them? They certainly haven't on my part," Sam conceded.   
  
"They haven't?" Jack asked in surprise.  
  
"No, they haven't," Sam admitted. "Listen, just because we talk about how we feel doesn't mean that we have to jump into bed with each other," she suggested.   
  
"No, it doesn't," he agreed nervously. "So, you want to talk about our feelings?" he inquired now definitely starting to panic.   
  
Sam shook her head slightly annoyed. "If you don't want to talk, then I will and you can just nod or something," she offered.  
  
"I can do that," Jack consented breathing a sigh of relief.  
  
"So here's what I propose," she began, ignoring his raised eyebrow at her choice of words. "We're going to pick a new room, off base," she stated looking around. "This one is no good. It's too tempting," she   
  
mumbled, and he trekked after her as she headed into the kitchen.   
  
"This will do," she nodded and then looked at him. "This is the room we will keep those feelings in," she clarified.   
  
"My kitchen?" he questioned, wondering if Orlin had done some damage when he had done his mind meld thing to her.  
  
"Sure. It's a great room. We are usually relaxed in here, and if our hands should happen to meet while getting a beer, well then so be it," she grinned reaching out to grab his hand. "We can talk in here   
  
without worrying about prying eyes, and whatever is said in here, stays in here," she explained. "The only difference is that we can come visit it whenever we want to."  
  
Still holding his hand she glanced at him to see his reaction. She was happy to see that he was contemplating the room with a thoughtful look.  
  
"I've always liked this room," he agreed in typical Jack O'Neill fashion. Then he frowned. "Do you think you could call me Jack in this room?"  
  
Sam thought for a minute. "No, but I think I could refrain from calling you Colonel or using the 'S' word in this room," she compromised.  
  
He nodded in acceptance and looked at their still joined hands. Since she'd taken such a huge leap of faith he figured he could bend a little.  
  
"I still care about you a lot more than I'm supposed to," he admitted.  
  
The smile he got was *so* worth it.   
  
"And I still have inappropriate feelings for you," she chuckled.  
  
"So there we are," he smiled.  
  
"Still stuck in limbo, but maybe it won't hurt so much any more?" she suggested. "I know that it will be a lot easier for me to be Major Carter if I know that once in while I can walk in here and remember   
  
how Sam feels."  
  
"Of course since this is my kitchen I'll be remembering a lot more often," Jack reminded her.  
  
"Yeah, I thought of that," Sam grinned. The she let go of his hand, grabbed a beer from the fridge, and headed back out to the living room, stopping to give him a swift kiss on the cheek as she passed.  
  
Jack stood in shock for a minute in the middle of the room. She'd set him up good. He would be forced to think of her whenever he set foot into his own kitchen. Then he laughed and grabbed a beer of his own.   
  
It was only what he deserved after all of the grief he'd put her through over the years. He looked around the room one more time before he joined her.   
  
He could definitely live with it.   
  
The end 


End file.
